A Literary Christmas Wrap Up

I’m posting my wrap-up for A Literary Christmas, late of course, but I was only participating loosely since that tends to work best for me. Any reviews will be in November and December books read posts. Now, I need to peruse everyone’s links to find ideas for next Christmas.

Grown-Up FictionChristmas At Fairacre Miss Read. I guess I’ll try this next year.

Christmas HistoryChristmas In Williamsurg: 300 Years of Family Traditions K. M. KostyalStories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas Ace Collins. I loved this at first but had my confidence in his veracity shaken by one of the stories (see my review); however, I think that if the updated version has corrections, I want to buy it and the second one as well as his book of stories (which Sarah of Lilacs and Springtime mentioned, and which I then requested from the library, but it looks like it might have been lost or taken off the shelves since my request), and maybe read a story a day for a Christmas countdown next year.Pagan Christmas: The Plants, Spirits, And Rituals at The Origins of Yuletide Christian Rätsch. Yeah, um this was disturbing. Also, not quite honest. Seemed to not merely be a factual story but a promotion of ancient paganism and drug use. Also, you can’t separate the pagan aspects out from Christian aspects so easily. Christmas is more like spaghetti historically, and you won’t get an honest picture unless you look at all the parts with some organization, something these authors weren’t doing. I put down.Christmas Customs and Traditions, Their History and Significance by Clement A Miles. I added this but only got through a few chapters as it was written in 1912 and is a bit more scholarly than easy. I do want to get it again, but I think I will start over and read more carefully and take notes.

Christmas BakingScandikitchen Christmas: Recipes and Traditions from Scandinavia Brontë AurellClassic German Baking: The Very Best Recipes for Traditional Favorites, from Pfeffernüsse to Streuselkuchen Luisa WeissFestive Baking: Holiday Classics in the Swiss, German, and Austrian Traditions Sarah Kelly Iaia

I didn’t make anything this year except what Mom had already decided on. Maybe I’ll have more motivation next year. I own the last book already, but I’d like the other German baking book as well if not also the Scandinavian one.

I’m really picky, I assume anyone who likes Lemony Snicket’s books will like them. I tried the first Series of Unfortunate Events awhile back and didn’t love it; he just might not be my cup of tea, or at least right now.